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Reviews

Food & Wine (Mar. 2007)
Gang of Pour (Nov. 2006)
Stephen Tanzer (Sep. 2006)
Wine Advocate (Aug. 2006)

How is it drinking?
Vintage Chart

The 2004 Tablas Creek Vineyard Syrah is Tablas Creek's second national release of this classic Rhone varietal. The wine displays the character of the Syrah grape exuberantly and elegantly, with classic flavors of bacon fat, wood smoke, blackberry and mineral, and should reward time in bottle to mature.

We use most of our Syrah as a part of our Esprit de Beaucastel and Cotes de Tablas blends each year. However, in 2004, we were so pleased by the classic flavors of the Syrah that we harvested that we reserved one foudre plus a few barrels of Syrah for a single-varietal.

The 2004 vintage was excellent, with a very early spring balanced by a long, warm (but rarely hot) summer. The extended ripening cycle gave the grapes intense aromatics, pronounced minerality, good acids, and good structure. Our first lots of Syrah came in on September 3rd, with harvest continuing over the next two weeks. The final Syrah lot was harvested September 14th.

As with all our wines, our Syrah grapes were grown on our 120-acre certified organic estate vineyard.

The Syrah grapes were destemmed and then fermented using native yeasts in small open-top stainless steel tanks. After three weeks, they were pressed, and moved to a balance of new and old french oak barrels to complete their fermentation. The red wines were assembled in June of 2005, and aged for an additional year in 1200-gallon foudres, before being bottled in July 2006. The wine is unfined and unfiltered, and should be expected to throw a sediment over time.

The 2004 Syrah shows a classic Syrah nose of white pepper, black fruit, and mineral. Juicy and full in the mouth, with ripe tannins, just a hint of sweet oak, and a savory finish with lingering notes of dark spice. The wine shows well now (better, in our opinion, than the 2003 did at this stage), but we expect it to drink well for a decade or more.